Abdullah al Samahiji

Abdullah bin Saleh al Samahiji (1675 - 1723) (ArB|عبد الله بن صالح السماهيجي) was a Bahraini Shia Islamic scholar who lived during the Safavid period. He was born in the village of Samaheej on Muharraq Island, and like many of his Bahraini contemporaries, he was a follower of the Akhbari theological school -- although his father was a pure Usuli who detested Akhbaris [Juan Cole, Sacred Space and Holy War, IB Tauris, 2007 p53] . Among his teachers was Sulaiman Abdullah al Mahuzi. [Schmidtke, Sabine. "The ijaza from 'Abd Allah b. Salih al-Samahiji to Nasir al-Jarudi al-Qatifi: A Source for the Twelver Shi'i Scholarly Tradition of Bahrayn." Madelung, Wilferd, Farhad Daftar and W Josef Meri. Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam. I.B.Tauris, 2003. 66.]

After the 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain, Al Samahiji fled to Isfahan where he briefly served as the Sheikh ul-Islam. [Andrew J. Newman, [http://www.scribd.com/doc/3729886/ The Nature of the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī Dispute in Late Ṣafawid Iran. Part 1: 'Abdallāh al-Samāhijī's "Munyat al-Mumārisīn] Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 55, No. 1 (1992), pp. 22-51] . He then settled in Behbehan where he died in 1722.

Among his works is "Munyat al Mumarisin" in Arabic, which includes an examination of the Akhbari-Usuli dispute.

References

* [http://www.scribd.com/doc/3729409 Rival Empires of Trade and Imami Shiism in Eastern Arabia, 1300-1800] , Juan Cole, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, (May, 1987), pp. 177-203

ee also

*Yusuf Al Bahrani
*Salih Al-Karzakani
*Maitham Al Bahrani
*History of Bahrain
*Bahrani people